Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

The Labour Party supports a carbon tax. We have argued for it and presented the case in various policy documents. We have been clear and unequivocal. Therefore, it is most regrettable that what was presented in this budget is a carbon tax which will not protect the poor and tackle climate change and the big polluters. It is a disgraceful carbon tax. In particular, it is a disgrace when one considers that Green Party Ministers are in government to pursue an agenda which is crucially important for the existence of this planet and the people living on it. What we have been presented with is shameful and we cannot support it.

See this speech in context